Sport teams have been "branding" themselves with music for at least a century. At the "Big House" and at Yost Arena, the University of Michigan band rouses all Wolverine with "Hall to the Victors," a song written in 1898, but a song that resonates just as well today :
Hall to the victors valiant
Hall to the conqu'ring heroes
Hall! Hall! to Michigan,
the champions of the West!
And anyone who follows English soccer will (often tearfully) associate an old American show tune-"You'll Never Walk Alone"-with Liverpool FC. In the last two decades, however, American's professional sport teams and leagues have made a calculated decision to wrap their products in more contemporary rock, country, or rap music. This was part of the larger strategy of sport organizations and media conglomerates like Disney and News Crop.